Dominique S.

Anderson
September 26, 2016
Child Psychology

Designer Babies

There are a few pros and cons in the creation of designer babies which are
defined as an embryo that is genetically altered to have the presence or absence of certain
genes. The plus side is being able to prevent birth defects, but there is still the 50/50
chance of it not working. The negative side of this is creating a drastic gender imbalance
over the years or creating a perfect child against an older sick sibling. This essay will
be about discussing both the pros and cons that can come from this new form of
technology.
Lets start with the upside of the creation of these special babies. Genetically
altering embryos to prevent diseases such as sickle can be very beneficial to the baby and
parents. The child would not have to suffer with the lifelong pain that comes with this
disease if the procedure were to work. The child would also not have to worry about
passing the gene down to their future children either. So far many parents who carry the
trait of any disease like sickle cell can use the germline editing procedure.
One of the arguments for why I do not agree with creating designer babies is
because the parents would be able to choose the gender. This option may not seem bad at

first but eventually it could create a gender imbalance in the long run. It could also lead to
the discrimination in years to come if the procedure fails and the parents ended up with a
baby of the opposite of what they wanted. Then if they tried it again and it works,
favoritism could be created in the household between the children.
The most important reason that I disagree with this is because parents could
choose to go this route in order to prevent the birth of another sick child. The newly born
child could be used to donate organs, skin tissue, blood, etc to their sick sibling against
their will. This may seem like brotherly/sisterly duties but this is kind of torture to the
other child being forced to be a guinea pig. The movie My Sisters Keeper is a perfect
example of this situation and should be kept into consideration.
All in all there are many pros and cons to the creation of these designer babies.
Yes, you could reduce the risk of babies being born with genetic conditions which is great
for the child. However, there is still the chance of creating something new with the
combination of genes that has to be made to get rid of the original problem. The negative
side is creating a child to save a sick one or having more girls than boys in the population
and vice versa. There is no definite fix to anything in the world, there will always be a
negative for a positive.